Setting Death Into Motion
by Deathly Betrayal
Summary: "You can't exactly set death into motion, can you?" "No, I can't set DEATH into motion, but... you'll understand."
1. Chapter 1

**A/N) Corvus = Phantom. :Y**

**Warning tag: Boy's love, skip away if you don't like it.**

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**.o: Setting Death Into Motion [1] :o.**

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Corvus winced as he hit the ground, dust from the sidewalk flying everywhere. He shuddered as he felt his shirt tear from both impact and rough treatment, and the apple in his hand was sent skittering across the ground out of his grip and came to a stop at a wall. Even from where he was, he could see that it was caked heavily with dust and he let out a short of disgust at how it looked.

A hand extended into his field of vision, and he blinked before looking upwards, towards the owner of the hand.

He had two brilliant sapphire blue eyes and a mass of slightly curvy gray hair, tinged with the same blue as his eyes. The robes he wore were white, and a single gold diamond was sewn onto the middle of his shawl, and it was trimmed with gold as well. His sleeves under the shawl were long, a lone thin golden strip going from one edge of it to another and trimmed at the edges with more gold. He also had a hood covering most of his head, but his eyes still shone through easily.

_Even through it isn't a very good choice of clothes in the desert_, Corvus thought, _the fabric seems quite thin, and bearable to wear in this heat._

He accepted the hand gratefully, almost bashfully, and pulled himself up.

"Thank you," he heard himself say as he inspected the damage on his own clothing. His already dusty and dirty shirt now had a tear in the middle, and his jeans were slightly ripped, and were dirty as well.

He stared almost enviously at the other child's clothes, wishing for better fabric to wear, at least. He then noticed the robes he wore were similar to the ones the higher officers of the guild 'Aurora' were, but less decorated and more made for children.

"No problem!" the other child said cheerfully, bringing him back to reality. "I was just thinking if you would like this, since you seem really hungry and all," the gray-haired male continued, holding out a bushel of apples, "and you dropped your apple way over there, but I don't think you want it now anyways. I think this would be a replacement of sorts, then?"

He ended on a questioning note, seemingly unsure of how the thief would take the news. Corvus slowly let out a smile.

"Really?" he asked in confusion, taking the basket off the other child's hands. At a single nod from the other, he grinned widely and took out an apple, taking a swift bite. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" he smiled. "D'you think that you can come and share some with me? I don't think I can eat too much of this, and I don't want any to rot because it would be a huge waste. It's been such a long time since anyone was so kind to me and I want to repay the favor. Although this isn't technically repaying, but who cares?"

"Um..." The other boy tilted his head, seeming to fall into a state of deep thought before it brightened up into a brilliant smile. At least he smiled often. "Sure! I think my schedule is free. It's not full of anything anyways, just my magic training, and even then, I don't go for that many sessions. My mom doesn't mind, though." He smiled again before taking an apple for himself.

"What's your name?" Corvus asked, walking towards a nearby oasis. The other scrambled to catch up, amazed by Corvus' swiftness. "Mine's Corvus. It isn't really my name, obviously, but I'm not too sure of my name given to me when I was born." He paused for a second, thinking. "It's just Latin for Crow. Or Raven, maybe."

"Luminous." Corvus looked at him weirdly, and the other boy laughed. "No, no. That's my name. We're in the same boat of having the weirdest possible names ever. They're not even names, are they?" Luminous shook his head in emphasis, "Have you ever heard of a more feminine name for a boy even if it was a name? It's not even a proper name, and I'm already nicknamed Lumi."

"All set sail on the ship of the stupidest names ever," Corvus grinned, before he paused. "Wait. Did you say your nickname was 'Lumi'?" Luminous nodded, an exasperated look going over his face as Corvus started to laugh. "R-really? Lumi? That's the worst nickname to ever give someone, ever! You already look so girly, if you haven't started talking to me I would have simply thought that you were a total female!"

"You're unlucky that I'm not a female, because then I can do this!" Luminous growled, slamming a surprisingly weak punch into his chest. Undeterred by the lack of reaction, Luminous seemed to fall into a state of concentration as white wisps of flame gathered around his fist.

Again, he slammed his fist back into the chest, the magic giving force to the otherwise meagre attempt to attack. This time, it hurt like hell, and Corvus dropped the basket only for it to be caught by Luminous.

The pain seemed to spread like wildfire, eating at his limbs. "Told you," Luminous said smugly, and Corvus shook his head. Luminous suddenly gripped the hand he had used to hit Corvus and frowned, casting quick glances towards him as he forced himself to relax. "I... I need to go. I'll be back tomorrow."

Luminous turned away and walked away quickly, Corvus staring after.

There was a secret that Luminous was hiding, but at the moment Corvus couldn't exactly get up and chase after him. He grabbed an apple off the basket and started to eat it, simply lying there until the burning from the hit stopped.

He got up, snatched up the basket, and headed into a small alleyway where he had made his home - well, as much as a child aged 14 could. When he _did_ arrive home, he immediately sat down and thought about the day's proceedings, before he agreed to himself that it had been quite a good day... although he did wonder what the Luminous was hiding.

And he noticed when he thought about _Luminous_, of all people, his heart warmed a little.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N) Yes, this is a chaptered story. Yes, Luminous is desperate to prove himself.**

**By the way, I'm probably never going to use 'Phantom' as a name until very much later. After a certain event that has to take place. -stares at fanfiction-**

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**.o: Setting Death Into Motion [2] :o.**

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Corvus was worried, for once.

It had been a few weeks after he and Luminous had first met, and just yesterday they had a pretty rough fight with each other, which involved Corvus shoving him against the walls of the city a few times. Luminous made up for his initial physical weakness, however, when he started to play dirty and started using far-ranged magic to attack.

Being a thief, Corvus had indeed the speed of one. He managed to dodge the majority of the magic bolts fired towards him over and over, and while he had sustained a few burns from this, Luminous seemed to have gotten very weak from being shoved into the wall, but still managed to stand and walk home.

In fact, after every fight, Luminous had to go home for a few days and often returned with a few bandages. But this time, Luminous had been gone for a few days, and Corvus was getting stupidly worried. He couldn't have hurt Luminous _that_ bad, could he?

That was the reason why when he saw Luminous again, relief filled his body and he raced after the gray-haired boy only to stop short a few metres before barrelling into the magician. "Luminous!" he called, and Luminous turned around, the initial face of shock dissipating into calm.

"Oh, hi!" Luminous grinned. Corvus was immediately shell-shocked by the amount of bandages over Luminous' body. While there was none over the head, there was so many over the body itself it was actually terrifying.

"Are you okay? Did I hurt you too much?" Corvus asked worriedly, and Luminous could let out a short chuckle, before stopping short. "Luminous?" he repeated, while the magician seemed to mull over a possible answer.

"No, no. My mom is just too worried about my welfare. I'm fine. She was just worried about all the scrapes and wounds I have, and we don't really learn healing magic as much as offensive light attacks," Luminous explained. Corvus let out a sigh of relief. Of course it was a mother's worry. What damage he did couldn't possibly be worse than a few scrapes and possibly a few bruises.

"Oh, I was worried," Corvus sighed. Luminous grinned again in response, and Corvus had to resist the urge to punch him in the face. Their relationship at the moment, while friendly, did involve much hitting and simple, rough violence.

"Mom says if I return with more bruises or cuts, though, she would murder me," Luminous said thoughtfully. "I don't want that to happen at the moment, so can you please hold off hitting me for the moment? Once I heal, we can continue hitting each other as much as we want. Until she gets worried again, anyway."

"Right, okay!" Corvus agreed. While the fighting _was _fun, he really didn't want to lose his fighting partner. Besides, they did go well together, instead of being against each other, and often trained together.

Luminous hesitated before holding out a hand to Corvus again. "Mom said that I could bring my friend home instead of scuffling in the streets. Would you come for once or stay in the street? They would really want to meet you."

"Who? Aurora?" Corvus couldn't restrain a laugh at Luminous' shocked face. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me. Your robes are so obvious in telling what guild you are in. I could tell that you were in the guild of Aurora from the very start."

"Oh! Um, I didn't notice the design much. I just was grown up in it." Luminous hesitated before pulling Corvus along through the streets, occasionally pausing before continuing the walk. "I don't really remember the way..." he said quickly, before Corvus could even ask a question on why he was pausing.

_I didn't even ask a question about that... nor did I intend to, _Corvus thought to himself silently, while allowing himself to be dragged along. _...Oh well. He might not be wanting me to worry... but what should I worry about more, his injuries or his sense of direction?_

"Neither," Luminous said tartly, and Corvus jolted when he realised he said his thoughts out loud. "Now shut up, we're nearly there. I'm not as badly injured as you think." Behind his words, there was a thinly-masked sense of pain.

Luminous hesitated before reaching for the doorknob. Before he could do anything to it, the door swung open and there was a blonde woman at the door, arms wide open to receive the gray-haired boy. "Mom! Put me down!" he squealed in annoyance, and the woman did before turning to Corvus, who stiffened immediately.

"Is this the child that you've been playing with on the streets?" she asked, holding out a hand to him. "My, my! You've been playing with what must be the poorest kid on the block!" She held out a shawl towards him, and when he accepted it it slid about on his hands like the finest silk. He put it on, and he folded the collar down.

"Why would you put a collar on a shawl?" he asked quietly. She blinked, before smiling.

"Oh, no! We always do that. Luminous' here just happens to be the child version, so it doesn't have one. The collar is just to show a sense of them being the higher-ups in the guild. The ones with the collars are the ones for guards, attackers, or simply the strongest light mages. The others don't have a collar."

Luminous glared at his mother before taking corvus's hand again. "Come on, the inside doesn't lead to where you think it is! It's magic!" he exclaimed happily, pushing his way in.

Immediately, the backdrop shifted around them shifted and from where it had previously been four empty, dusty sand-colored walls shifted into dark blue cave walls. Houses shimmered like a mirage in a heat wave before appearing completely and turning solid. Behind him, the doorway to where Ariant had been previously changed into another segment of the cave.

"What the-?" Corvus backed away and tripped on a stone, but was immediately brought back to a standing position by Luminous' mother. Luminous grinned childishly at corvus and hurried deeper into the cave, where a few scholars with large books stood. corvus followed curiously, and when he heard the conversation going on, he backed away immediately.

"What's wrong, child?" the blond woman asked, kindly, as Corvus watched Luminous continue his conversation with the scholars.

"I... have no idea what they're talking about," Corvus admitted. "How did Luminous get such varied knowledge, anyway?" he asked, turning towards the woman quickly. She smiled. "Ma'am, if you would tell me," he hurriedly added.

"No, no, just call me Lucia. Many people do. As for Luminous' knowledge, well, he wouldn't become a magician without it, would he?" Lucia asked Corvus, a smile tugging at her lips. Corvus nodded, still watching Luminous before the gray-haired child ended the conversation and walked back to him.

"Oh, sorry for making you wait!" Luminous laughed. "I just _had _to talk to them! They were the ones as the most highest rank in Aurora, and the last time I talked to them was when they were near at the bottom! It's funny how fast most people in this can improve!"

"What about you, though? Are you still at the bottom?" Corvus asked quietly. Lucia laughed behind them.

"Luminous has been at the bottom for ages, now. He doesn't train much, and when he does, he doesn't put his heart into it! It's nice to see that he finally has a training partner - If you'll agree to it, of course!" Lucia grinned, ignoring Luminous' glare towards her again.

"Mom, that's mean!" he groaned, and Corvus froze at Lucia's words.

"He's at the _bottom_? He seemed strong when he hit me at our first meeting!" Corvus yelled. "How do your rankings _work_!? He injured me - well, he burned me, but same difference!"

"_Burn?" _Lucia turned back to Luminous. "Luminous!" she chastised, "I thought I said that no Aurora member learns fire magic! Why are you doing it anyway?"

"I didn't," Luminous said sullenly. "I coated my hand with pure light magic. Light burns, you know?" he muttered.

"No. Pure light magic is fire magic, Luminous. No one uses the purified form of light magic, because it becomes fire and causes a blaze!" Lucia explained.

"What's the point of purifying light magic if it's already pure?" Corvus interrupted. Lucia sighed.

"Listen. Light magic is the core of three kinds of magic - Dark magic, light magic, and fire magic," Lucia started to explain, but Luminous broke away from the conversation and escaped, while Corvus listened with utmost care. "Well, it's good to see you're still here. Dark magic is non-purified light magic. It hasn't been purified at all."

"You've already explained about fire, so I don't think it matters. You said that it was completely purified light magic, didn't you?"

"Well, yes and no. Light magic, when completely purified and used in an offensive way is fire magic. But if it's completely purified and used in a defensive manner, it's still light magic," Lucia continued.

"What makes a difference around it, though?" Corvus asked. Lucia smiled.

"Dark magic isn't purified at all. Light magic is purified once, and fire magic is purified twice. Easy," Luminous yelled from where he was standing nearby. "Now get over here. I'm getting bored." Corvus cast a glance at Lucia and she nodded.

Corvus took it as an invitation to leave and raced off, looking for Luminous. Well, at least he knew how light magic worked now. He could at least use it against Luminous in another fight.

If there was another fight. Now that he knew the works of light magic... if he was honest with himself, he didn't actually want to fight Luminous anymore.

Not when he saw Luminous looked this bad after every fight.

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**A/N) Sorry for ending it on a random note... :c**

**If you know why Luminous is so desperate to prove himself, well... I'm not telling you if you're right, so yell it out anyway. XD**

**Yes, there's going to be many time skips. Sorry. :U... I'm not interested in writing a day-by-day story, it would take ages.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N) I'm rushing through the storyline now. It has grown to a point where I can barely stand writing it.**

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Corvus wandered up and down the cavern, the strangely light blue rock under his feet crumbling lightly. He was looking for his playmate, and maybe have some fun. Soon enough, he heard the gray-haired male speak, although not to him, and seemingly in response.

"-don't want the treatment anymore," Luminous said softly towards Lucia. She seemed heartbroken, opening her hands as if to envelop Luminous in a hug, before she visibly restrained herself. "I know the cost it's been bringing, and I don't want that to happen. I want you to be happy and not have to worry all the time."

"But... Luminous," Lucia cried, "the cost is nothing! It ensures your survival, and maybe you'll beat the disease and you can live like you've always wanted, as the top magician-"

"I don't need it," Luminous interrupted, tears in his sky-blue eyes and he forced a smile. "I know I'll die sooner or later, and... I don't want to prolong this suffering. I don't need the treatment."

Lucia made a movement as to speak, but Corvus strode into the conversation immediately. He had heard enough about this, and he wanted his answers right _now._ "Luminous!" he called, and Luminous jolted, and turned around slowly. Lucia immediately covered up her distraught emotion with a kindly smile.

"Yes, Corvus? We were just having a _lovely_ talk," Lucia smiled. "Do you need anything?"

"No. What's this disease you were talking about?" Corvus yelled. Luminous' smile, which he had put up before Corvus had walked over, fell immediately.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," Luminous said softly. "I never had a disease-"

"Don't lie to me. I've heard your conversation enough," Corvus spat. Luminous' gaze faltered. "_What disease do you have?_" he repeated viciously. Lucia backed away, but spoke in response as Luminous failed to answer. "Why are you dying!?"

"He has leukaemia, if you must know," Lucia said softly. Luminous looked away before getting up, but Corvus stood in his way, refusing to budge. Undeterred, Luminous raised a hand and tried to push him away, but now the movement was so weak he barely moved.

"M-move..." Luminous said quietly. Corvus blinked. Luminous' voice was so weak at the moment, it was as if he had given up on life completely. "I... I want to go out."

"That would be suicide," Corvus said firmly. Luminous managed a half-smile.

"Does it matter, though? I'm dying anyway. It just means that I'm dying sooner than everyone else," Luminous grinned. Corvus glared at him, before sweeping Luminous off his feet. "P-put me down!" he yelped.

"No," Corvus said immediately. "I'm bringing you somewhere and we need to talk."

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"So how long have you had this disease for?" Corvus asked, slacking backwards onto the tree. Luminous sat, shaking, next to him. "Hey, calm down, Lumi. It's not like I'm going to murder you."

"Few months," Luminous said softly. Corvus noted how he didn't react towards the nickname. "I've been under treatment all the while, and I didn't like it."

"So you got it even before I was there? Why didn't you tell me?" Corvus snapped. Luminous blinked before looking down.

"Yes, I had it before I met you. I... I didn't tell you because I didn't want to hurt you," Luminous murmured. "I never had a friend for so long, and I didn't want you to walk away because you were scared of me..."

"How many bones did I break?"

"What?" Luminous asked, appalled by the sudden question.

"I said, _how many bones did I break?_"

"A few ribs. Maybe a finger. I never checked, nor did I want to." Luminous turned away. "You know, the days that I had with you made me feel really normal. Even though it really hurt at times, it just felt right."

"Idiot, hurting someone else isn't normal," Corvus sighed. "It isn't sensible, and I would have stopped doing that if you told me I was hurting you."

"Well, to come back at you, I never really had an experience with anyone else, so I wouldn't know," Luminous said, helpfully. Corvus resisted the urge to push him over, knowing it would just hurt him more.

"How long do you have, then?" Corvus asked, almost reluctantly. Luminous blinked, and mulled over the topic.

"I don't know. Never checked. I don't like having a set date for me to die," Luminous said thoughtfully. "I don't think anyone does."

"So you could just die the next day and not know?"

"Yep."

"What do you want to be when you grew up?" Corvus asked, giving up on the topic of Luminous' death, seeing as to how hopeless he was with the topic due to not even knowing. Luminous shook his head.

"Top magician of Aurora. It's an impossible dream, but it's what I want." Luminous smiled at the thought, and Corvus made a mental note about it.

"Anything else?" he asked. He wanted the list to be as thorough as it would possibly be.

"Well, I want to meet Freud. That would be wonderful." Corvus knew the famous magician. Rumor had it that he had gotten a companion - the king of the onyx dragons, maybe.

"Not anything else, then?" he checked. Luminous shot a cheeky smile at him.

"Doing that with you. Does that count?" Luminous asked. Corvus sighed, shaking his head with a slight blush. Luminous grinned when he noticed it.

"Idiot."

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Corvus never understood why Luminous was so happy about the fact that he was going to die. Well, at least, how happy he could be with the disease he had. He carried Luminous everywhere, now, but he knew even then Luminous' lifespan was limited.

He wanted everything to be as happy as it could possibly be. Maybe he was happy. Corvus pulled out the list from the corner of his mind and revised through it again. It now had the addition of fighting the Black Magician, after he had learnt about the dangers lurking outside Aurora.

He only noticed that Luminous' laughter had ceased when he looked at him again. And it was only when he felt no heartbeat that he put him down and went to look for Lucia.

She knew what had happened the moment he knocked at her door.

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"Lucia."

It had been a few days after Luminous' death. It was a small ceremony, but it never really mattered. Lucia looked up, tears in her eyes. Her eyes widened when she noticed Corvus, holding Luminous' staff awkwardly. "What are you doing with his staff?"

"I want to train light magic. Can you teach me?" he asked, revising through the list quickly. Lucia blinked before nodding slowly. "I know the basics. Luminous had taught me them."

"Do you know how it works? As in, with the potions and all?"

When you lived as a thief, you noticed stuff. Corvus noticed them, anyway, and he nodded. Lucia got to her feet. "What kind of clothes do you have in mind for your ceremony? Every guard here has a customized outfit."

Corvus hesitated. Would this be a good idea? "Something that you think would match Luminous," he said. "I want to learn light magic. He said to me that he wanted to be the top light magician. I'm doing it for him."

"Are you sure about this?" Lucia asked, barely shocked with the news about the outfit customization. Luminous had, in fact, drafted out an outfit. She would use that. Corvus nodded.

"Then we shall begin."

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**A/N) And I kill Luminous, start Corvus' training, and all in under 1.5k words. Sorry. :Y I really hate writing long stories, and this is driving me off the deep end. The next chapter would be the second-last chapter, maybe. o-o I'm really losing motivation, and when I do that I try to make the story shorter so it doesn't kill me. Sorry for the short-as-heck chapter, but I want to end this thing as soon as I possibly can.**

**Explanation for things that had happened in the first two chapters and this one:**

**1) Luminous was firstly desperate to prove himself because he didn't want to look weak. As stated in this chapter, he didn't want to scare Corvus off by being weak. While this is not the case in many friendships, he is also being himself. He was trying to prove his strength, which many boys have. But, he is weak because he has weak bones. He _cannot _hit hard because he would break his own bones. However, because of Luminous hitting Corvus first, Phantom also plays rough with him as a result, shoving him into walls and as a result breaking his bones.**

**2) He was covered in bandages because Phantom broke his bones. It is a mother's worry, not to mention Luminous was under treatment. That was why he disappeared for a few weeks, not because Lucia was worried. BUT, since Phantom shoved him into many walls, it broke quite a few bones, which is why he is covered in bandages.**

**3) He broke a finger because he was in a fight with Phantom. I had said Luminous started to play dirty, but it didn't mean that he had started playing dirty at the beginning of the fight. At the beginning, he was using his fists.**

**4) He lived that long because he was under treatment. The paragraphs after the first line break in the story occurs a few days - weeks after. I never had a chance to live with leukaemia, nor do any of my family members have it, so I do _not _know how it works.**

**I'm so sorry for not developing the backstory more. ;A; I seriously CAN'T stand writing long fanfictions. I hope you can deal with it, and that it doesn't put you off.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N) And... fourth chapter. This is seriously the longest I have EVER written anything for. ;u; thank you for the support!**

**Yeah, and, I wanted to post this up much, much sooner, but I hit a dead wall. :c **

**So, you're getting what I have until the dead wall. Then a time skip. Again. Yay.**

**One last chapter, yo. xD!**

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**.o: Setting Death Into Motion [4] :o.**

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Corvus blinked, drawing back the goals from the corner of his mind. He knew Luminous wanted to do that himself, and well... although Luminous couldn't be there, he knew he could do the things for him. First goal? Top magician of Aurora. He was close to being it. He could feel it.

He had managed to do so in a short time, spanning over a few years, although much shorter than what Luminous had. Of course, this was due to him having a stronger body than Luminous, but just as lanky, although he was stronger in physical combat than Luminous would ever be.

He twisted his finger into his slightly long blond hair, having refused to cut any of it, to mimic Luminous' hair length. Lucia had begged to cut it time and time again, but every single chance was met with stubborn refusal. It was strange, yes, but it wouldn't matter.

"Hey, Corvus?" Lucia asked from the side. "The battles to determine the strongest out of the light mages in Aurora will happen soon." Corvus stood up, and looked at Lucia, a slight smile on his face as he mulled over what he was about to say.

"Hey, Lucia," he asked quietly. It was a strange request, but he knew that it was what he needed to do for the moment. He just hoped that Lucia would be able to understand why he was doing this. "When would the battles start? When it does, may I be left alone until then?"

"I guess... you have honed your skills enough, and your request is... strange, but reasonable. Very well. You will be left alone." Lucia was trying to keep the motherly tone out of her voice, and Corvus knew it. Corvus had reminded her of Luminous too much, but the battles would be the last straw.

But he wanted to be alone. He needed to, in order to do what he had in mind.

* * *

He blinked, squinting into the mirror as he tried to make sense as of what he had just did. He had dyed his hair a light gray, the same shade as Luminous' hair, but from all the days of spending time with him, he had seen the light blue tints in Luminous' hair. He had mimicked every detail to perfection, and he knew it.

He thought back to Luminous' attitude, trying to shift his to Luminous' perfectly. While he knew people changed in time, he wanted to keep the memory as fresh and vivid as it could be. He managed to force his attitude over after a few tries, and also managing to keep it similar. He knew that his attitude would jerk back to his same old self at times, but it would be fine.

He frowned, blinking at the contact lenses in his hand again. He had managed to snatch some from Ariant, through the portal in which he had first arrived in. He had promised Luminous he would do it, and hell if he wasn't going to do it as him.

He stared at the robes. It was similar to Luminous', yes, but it also had a touch of Luminous' design and simplicity. He smiled at it, memories growing vivid in his mind. Lucia knocked at the door lightly, and he knew he was needed to leave. He put on the contact lenses carefully, blinking quickly before checking the shade. It was perfectly blue, the exact shade, and he knew he had done it correctly.

The hair would be a pain to maintain, but hell if he wouldn't do this. He opened the door and left, hearing Lucia let out a gasp of shock as he walked towards the area where the battles would be held.

He looked around quickly and teleported towards the announcer. "Excuse me," he asked, smiling. "May I be announced as 'Luminous', and not 'Corvus'? I'm trying to do this in his memory, and I would like it if you would do that. He would like having his name up, that's for sure."

"Oh- of course!" the announcer said, appalled. He smiled again before walking off, towards the seats that had been set up, He sat down at the one he was assigned to, looking around quickly. He heard the announcer go over the names briefly, and to his word changed Corvus' name to Luminous'.

Everyone turned towards him, staring at him, and he smiled briefly again before looking up towards the first battle. It was between him and another young magician. He knew immediately that he could beat him easily.

He got up and walked towards the stage.

* * *

"The top magician this year is Luminous! May everyone congratulate him!" Corvus smiled, panting lightly. He had did it. He had managed the fight, and the last few were hard. He had pushed for it, knowing that he wasn't the strongest for sure.

It was just that the last fighter was the one to mess up. Lucia raced towards him and hugged him tightly, and Corvus laughed lightly, mimicking the gentle laughter of Luminous' that he had grown to love. In fact, the more that _he _laughed, it was as if they were together again.

"Are you going to take down your disguise, you little blessing?" Lucia smiled, putting Corvus down. Corvus shook his head quickly. He was close to Lucia's height by now, although Lucia could still pick him up.

"I'm going to stay Luminous. He wanted to win the title of top magician. I did it for him, and he has other goals I know I can complete." Corvus hid a sad smile. "And to do that, I would need to leave from Aurora."

Lucia frowned. "It's dangerous out there! You might get killed, or worse-"

"No. I'm top magician. I can handle myself. Besides, I saw what had been given to the guild master." He looked down, towards his hands, where he held an invitation tightly. "It's an invitation to join the Intransigence against the Black Magician. It's given to the top magician this year."

"You've planned all this out then?" Lucia asked quietly. "Well, I can't stop you. You can leave, as soon as you need to."

"I didn't plan this out. In fact, I couldn't believe my luck." He laughed suddenly, realizing the sudden connection. "What would you expect from a thief, anyway? Although... I'm not a thief anymore, but it still counts."

* * *

The second goal was to meet Freud. It was fun meeting the scholar, another magician, and to see the scaly beast that had been named the King of the Onyx Dragons. His name was Afrien.

"Do you have anywhere to go, Luminous?" Freud asked, leaning onto Afrien's wings. Corvus shook his head, and Freud frowned. "I thought you were a magician of Aurora. It should be easy to head back and forth-"

"I do not know where it is anymore, neither do I have a place to stay now. I had said that I would leave Aurora, and I did, and I don't think it would be as easy to head back and forth as you think. The place is shrouded with magic," Corvus explained.

Freud nodded. "You could stay with me and Afrien for the moment, then. That's where everyone's staying." Corvus nodded in reply, staying quiet for the most part. "...And, I believe that you're not who I think you are."

Corvus' head shot up. "W-what do you mean?" he asked. Freud let out a slight smile.

"You're not _Luminous_, are you. I do know for a fact that Luminous is dead, and has been for around four years." Corvus frowned, and shook his head quickly. Freud smiled knowingly. "I thought as much. Who are you?"

"Corvus," he said, finally. Maybe he could trust one person with his secret. Just one person. It couldn't be that bad in the end, right? "My name's Corvus, although sometimes I'm called Phantom. Because of my speed. It's not anything much."

Freud nodded calmly. "Corvus," he repeated after the thief-turned-magician, testing the name. "I would call you Corvus, but I think I'll introduce you to the others as Phantom."


End file.
